Private Tales Forastero

[Amorea Delarosa]

The first time Kishou had wrapped his arms around her had been cause for a very discomforted Priestess. Now it was a welcome comfort from her dear, inebriated friend. Despite him being not of her home in Cortos, it somehow felt a bit like home to be there. She was reminded of her courtyard gardens and the walks they took through them. Sharing tea in her solar. Riding with him through the forest on that Godforsaken island.

"Mm," she hummed in thought, feeling that the tumult of the evening's emotions could use with a bit of soothing, "maybe just a small one."

 

[Kishou]

"Okay," whispered the swordsman, and after lingering a few seconds longer against Amore, he stood up, "I'll be back."

True to his word this time, the swordsman returned with the neck of a small white bottle pinched between his knuckles and an extra cup in his other hand.

He sat cross-legged next to Amore, poured her a drink, then himself.

"Here," he nudged the back of her hand with the tiny cup.

 

[Amorea Delarosa]

The smell of sake was so poignant. Bitter yet sweet, the smoothness of its taste disguising the sting of the swallow. There was nothing quite like it in Cortos, not even their whiskey. Amore shared the bottle with Kishou until they had drank the bottle dry and folded into the mattress, content and sleepy.

Amore lay with her eyes closed, quietly listening to the world around her, and wondered just how long it had been since they arrived at the portal stone from Elbion. A year?

"Do you know how long we have been traveling here?" she murmured quietly to Kishou as he settled in beside her. His warmth inviting her to inch just that must closer.

 

[Kishou]

"Longer than a few weeks and shorter than a few decades," he said as he gently lowered his back onto the mattress. He turned on his side to face Amore.

He boldly reached out to tuck a stray lock of hair hanging over her face behind her ear.

 

[Amorea Delarosa]

Amore chuckled, "That's a very obtuse estimate," not that she really felt that she needed a better answer. Though it was difficult to keep a handle on the passage of time when one could hardly keep track of the day. That sort of sense seemed to have gone with her eyesight. Hours sometimes felt like days. Days sometimes passed like hours. Where had the time gone since they'd arrived?

Since she'd hated him for what he did?

Since she'd forgiven him for the very same.

She couldn't help the slight flinch of surprise at his hand brushing away the hair from her face, but quickly recovered. Amore caught his hand with her own, holding it there at the side of her face.

"I only just got you back from your mission for the Chairman..." her smile wilted and brow knit, "and now you must leave my side again. Why does it feel as though something beyond is trying to pull us apart?"

 

[Kishou]

"As if it's our destiny?"

His hand cupped the side of her face perfectly. With his thumb, he gently stroked her cheek. Musing. Kishou thought it grimly funny, her mentioning of separation. Wasn't that what awaited them at the end of this long journey?

She would return to her life, he to his.

"Fuck that," he whispered under a breathy chuckle, "who - whatever puppeteer of fate won't keep me from you. For long, anyway."

A soft but firm squeeze of her cheek.

"Your side. I like it here, you know."

 

[Amorea Delarosa]

"Kishou!" she hissed at the man, brows raised in shock as she pulled his hand from her face, "Such language..." but she was smirking, and tried not very hard at all to hid the expression behind his hand that she now held against the mattress between them.

If he had voiced his thoughts on the matter of the end journey it would have been a rather jarring thing for her. Amore was not thinking that far ahead. Not anymore. After so many situations where life had not been assured for one or both of them, the Priestess had begun to live more in the present. Strangely, she'd become rather fond of doing so. Now she truly enjoyed these shared moments, whereas before she might not have paid them much thought at all.

Perhaps one day she would wake up having forgotten why they were here at all, complacent simply to live at the side of the Forastero in these foreign lands.

A brief but rueful smile pulled at her lips as she shifted slightly closer, curling into that spot beside him that had become so familiar, "Who ever heard a tale of two people fated to be apart?" She made a thoughtful noise of disagreement, "Not I. ...though I suppose we will live it first hand."

 

[Kishou]

"I suppose we will," echoed the swordsman, "But not for long."

Kishou's hand between them felt its way to Amore's back, and as she inched closer, he did the same. Until that tiny space between them was nothing, and he clung to the Priestess tightly as if in protest to their sad fate and those that wove it.

While the younger woman had taken to living day-by-day, the swordsman had thought of the future more and more, particularly their ill-awaited separation. Sometimes he would close his eyes, picture the steps leading up to her cathedral, her home, and in his mind see Amore disappear behind its towering oak doors. Closed off, forever. And it caused him no small amount of heartache.

A deep sigh as he nuzzled into Amore's hair. The stress, the grief, the heartache - all gone as he held his Rose.

 

[Amorea Delarosa]

The sense of trepidation compounded under the squeeze of his arms, filling Amore with a form of worrying fear the likes of which she hadn't felt in many years. It was the same sensation she remembered on the night of a mission that had gone horribly wrong. One she had felt certain she would not return from. The longing for Cortos, the Church, and her Radiant family had been so strong and she too young to believe her faith would see her through the coming terrors.

Not yet a Solar Choir Priestess at that point, but well on her way as an Acolyte.

She'd learned a great deal on that mission from pushing through her fears instead of bowing away from them.

"Kishou," Amore frowned, terrified of the words that desperately wanted to be spoken and what it meant now for her faith, "will you kiss me?"

 

[Kishou]

A long silence filled the tiny space between the pair. Kishou's hand that comfortably found the small of her back trailed its way up, brushed over her nape, and his fingers raked through her hair. The swordsman deeply sighed and took in the Priestess' scent, and the great warmth accompanying it sent his heart aflutter.

Tilting his head down, the tip of Kishou's nose brushed against Amore's, and he pulled his large hand across the woman's neck and held her face under the corner of her jaw.

People offered permission differently. That had been Kishou's experience, at least. Sometimes obvious, but most so subtle, Kishou was sure he'd missed many more chances of intimacy than he'd enjoyed. Amore's expression, her troubled frown and pursed bottom lip, and furrowed brows were a unified demand rather than a hint of consent.

Now, or never.

Kishou slowly, very carefully, drew Amore into a long, deep kiss.

 

[Amorea Delarosa]

When he didn't respond she worried that she'd overstepped or misread so many things. Unknown cultural lines. Hints of affection or strained wanting. The closeness they'd grown between them. Had she really been so wrong about everything? Was she truly so oblivious to this aspect of human relations due to her upbringing?

His hand was in her hair, fingertips running over her scalp, and she briefly thought he was simply being kind. There there, little Rose, no need for such gestures. Her frown deepened and she closed her eyes, willfully accepting her misgivings about it all. To simply remain close with the man was certainly enough - she'd only wished for a brief moment of the intimacy she'd been warded from.

Then his hand was lifting her chin and her entire thought process came to a blistering halt. From the instant their lips connected she became suffused by his presence and warmth and it spread through her mind like a soothing summer rain. Amore's concerns of misguidance evaporated as he pulled her in and she felt the weight of everything lift free.

Fear. Regret. Doubt. Anger. Pain. Spite. The lamentations of the past year. All of it vanished in the sudden revelation of her boundless care for Kishou. She felt it all radiate out from her core, a warmth that she had once known and felt for her Faith and her devotion to the Church now renewed ...but entirely for him. Amore could feel it filling every fiber of her being, as though she were glowing.

And, in fact, she was.

The Priestess was glowing - literally - her skin giving off a ethereal soft golden glow with a warmth that felt like sunlight filtering through panes of glass.

 

[Kishou]

How mindful he'd been of her request in their travels.

"Only I... wish to keep my vows and honors intact."

As if at that moment, a wall had been erected between them. Oh, the chances that had been laid before him. How his measure had been tested on the nights they shared the comfort of a single bed or the warmth of a bath, laying neither hand nor gaze upon her in those vulnerable moments.

The sin of his lies could be forgiven. But breaking her trust in him, never.

Day by day, little by little, cracks in that wall built their way from its foundation to the top until it had begun to crumble. And then, in an instant, toppled completely.

The swordsman rolled over the Priestess, making a cage of his body over Amore as his lips parted from hers for only a breath before, with the gentleness of a falling cherry blossom petal, returned for a second kiss. And a third.

As Amore had grown warmer and brighter, Kishou's eyelids fluttered open and he suddenly recoiled.

"Amore! Your skin!"

 

[Amorea Delarosa]

Amore barely registered the shift of the man over her for as lost in the blooming emotion of feeling for him as she'd become. It wasn't until his lips parted from her that she realized it, and without even a moment to consider before he alighted upon her again with the gentlest kiss. She felt her heart shiver with unexpected relief from it all - that she'd been wrong about her doubts. Proven again with a third kiss and the encroaching weight of his presence until

suddenly

he wasn't there anymore.

His words of shock were a shattering of porcelain in a silent prayer hall.

Her pale, useless eyes blinked open in surprise and confusion, "My...what? What do you mean? What's wrong?"

Almost as suddenly, the glow of her skin died away.

 

[Kishou]

"You're...! Were... bright. Uh, glowing." Kishou swallowed and cleared his throat, straightening up before moving to the side of her seconds later.

The reprieve from their troubles and release of his long-stored desires and feelings were overshadowed by the temporary surge of splendorous grace within the young woman.

"Like a paper lantern, you lit up," he excitedly said, "I swear it!"

 

[Amorea Delarosa]

And just as quickly that sensation of warmth within her died away, too. It seemed to vanish with that of his closeness and she suddenly felt colder for the effort. Amore fretted over the loss of it that Kishou's excitement was momentarily unheard.

"My ...skin?" the hand that had been tucked in along his chest withdrew from him, pressing her knuckles lightly along her cheek where his own hand had been moments before. Amore pushed herself to sit up, taking a steadying breath as she tried to muddle her way through all these combating emotions swirling about within her. She couldn't help the continued look of concern.

"You mean ... like magic?" Was that what she had felt? The re-connection of her magic? "But I wasn't-" the frown returned. How could that be? She'd only been thinking about him. Though she could not see him, her eyes drifted toward the sound of his breathing and the Priestess wavered in a moment of ... was it discomfort or bashfulness? She couldn't tell - asking him to kiss her once to have that memory of him had been out of an earnest desire to simply be closer.

To ask again for her own means of testing a theory seemed exceptionally against her doctrines.

"Kiss me? One more time?"

 

[Kishou]

Patiently sitting in expectant silence, watching as Amore wracked her thoughts over the phenomenon, the significance of what had just happened settled into Kishou's chest. Had he really done that? Was that it, then? Would she sober up, realize what she'd asked for and what he'd done, and construct an even greater wall between them? Or, perhaps-

"Kiss me? One more time?"

Not even a single thought was given a chance to cross Kishou's mind as he nearly flung himself forward back into the softness of Amore's lips. It wasn't his nature to leave his Rose wanting. Or waiting. Or whatever it was she felt having posed the question a second time. Though she had her reason, the swordsman needed nothing of the sort to kiss her again.

As he leaned forward, one hand fell over hers on the mattress. His second would follow suit and snake up under her jaw and settle behind her ear, his fingers weaving through the Priestess' crimson locks.

 

[Amorea Delarosa]

As soon as they connected she felt everything return. Like the sunlight hidden behind heavy clouds returning to brilliance as they passed by in the winds. Every new point of touch seemed to engender a glowing warmth, and all those small moments shared between them over the last year played through her mind. How he'd been there for every moment of sadness and break in her stoic veneer. Even despite his actions of stealing her away from her life to bring her here, she felt an innate strength from it in the bond they'd formed.

But she'd denied those little yearnings for closeness, those fragile instances of pining when he held her or snuggled in close or lead her by the hand. Even her anger at his lies had solidified what she was feeling now. That she cared deeply for him and, no, she didn't want to be apart from him.

Amore's heart was pounding in her chest. The Priestess blushed furiously, but more poignantly she was illuminated by these emotions in that same golden glow more brilliantly than before. This time, she clasped her free hand over the wrist of his hand in her hair and lightly broke from his lips. It took effort to steady her breath from the uncertainty, "Am I glowing again?"

 

[Kishou]

"Brighter than the sun," Kishou breathed his hushed response against her lips and pressed his forehead to hers, "And warmer than summer rays."

He smiled and breathed a deep, content sigh.

"The road until this point has been a long one, hasn't it?"

There was a short pause.

"I want to kiss you again."

 

[Amorea Delarosa]

As if she could not blush any more violently, he proved her wrong. There was something curiously discomforting about this closeness to him that made her acutely aware of how wrong it was. Perhaps it was the change in his tone - one that he'd used perhaps a handful of times before but only in moments of similar closeness. It made her internally squirm against the binds of her Faith that pulled her away from him, and her growing desire to tread those forbidden waters.

The latter won out, if only because this was the first breakthrough for her magic they'd found, and he was the source of it. At least, that's what it seemed. Amore loosed a breathless laugh of relief in response to his remark about how long it had been and she strained against the well of exhaustion and grief from it all. The involuntary need to cry stung at her eyes and she swallowed hard with a light sniff, pressing into his forehead in an unspoken agreement. It had been very long.

Her heart hammered with a mixture of unchecked joy and anxiety, nearly seizing from his words that followed.

Amore squeezed his wrist in trepidation because she wanted to kiss him again, too. It was wrong to want it, but if this lead to regaining her magic just how wrong could it really be? "I...uhm," the Priestess slowly exhaled a wavering breath and nodded, feeling uncharacteristically awkward and at a loss for words, "yes?"

 

[Kishou]

No doubt he would have felt guilty if he could peer into Amore's mind and understand even a portion of her conflicting emotions, for his reason in desiring more of her was characteristically simple. She was a woman dear to his heart. He needn't have any other reason to kiss her aside from wanting to feel close to her.

Kishou tilted his head and softly pecked Amore's lips. Each subsequent kiss growing deeper than before. He leaned into her, coaxing the Priestess into lying down.

Rarely did Amore's composure shatter in this manner. Her timidness as she toed strange waters and uncertainty, not in wanting to kiss him, but on how to maneuver about the action, was, well, cute. And it took a great deal of self-control for Kishou to not devour her wholly.

The warrior peeled himself from her lips for a breath but in doing so gently caught her bottom lip between his teeth, only to let go with an impish smile.

 

[Amorea Delarosa]

The flustering nature of it all was terrifying and frustrating all at once - to have no control or idea of how to approach it. Perhaps she might've had more grace if she could but see him, but in her state within such unfamiliar territory Amore could only let things happen. She waited in anticipatory suspense for the touch of his lips, felt the hammering of her heart stutter as he leaned into her, and gracelessly faltered into laying back if only from her nerves.

The Priestess continued to glow, growing warmer as Kishou leaned in over her and feeling the heat beneath her collar to longer he stayed there. He was already siphoning her breath away with each kiss, but the small bite took the last of it.

Amore uttered something breathlessly in Cortosi and reached her hands out tentatively for him. Her fingertips found his jaw and smoothed along his cheeks. Thumbs sliding over his chin to his lips. She so desperately wanted to see him again and that sudden fear of forgetfulness seeped its way back into her mind. Amore traced the lines of his expression, smiling faintly as she struggled to remember the first time she saw him, "You are so handsome," she admitted quietly, "I always thought that about you."

 

[Kishou]

Kishou swallowed hard. His breathing had become shallow as his heart thundered in his chest. When she gently explored the sharp lines of his face, he tilted his head into her touch. Even the tips of her fingers radiated that soothing warmth that coursed throughout her.

Amore's whispers drew a hot blush into the swordsman's cheeks, and he let slip a quiet chortle. He held his hand over one of hers, smiling.

"Meeting you has been my greatest blessing."

Kishou's lips fluttered over the palm of her hand in a light kiss.

"You're my dearest friend," he whispered in confession to her, "Whom I love with all of my heart."

 

[Amorea Delarosa]

Even in this world the word love didn't land very often. Amore felt it resonate within her very soul, and with his words echoing in her ears the illumination of her figure seemed even brighter. Love she only knew as an aspect of her Faith. Love for her Church, Love for the Sunfather, Love for the Beliefs, Love for the Congregation. That she was loved by the people she knew this, but it had never been something so personal or intimate before. It had always been a love driven by something much bigger than herself, and nothing she would ever resent.

Her Faith had gotten her this far in life, but at some point it had taken her as far as it could - forcing Kishou to take her the rest of the way. How ironic it was that he should be the one to unlock her magic again.

Amore smiled warmly, feeling the bittersweetness of the moment and once more lost for words. It was hard to emote what she felt for him due to the complicated nature of their friendship and the reason for why they were here. This didn't trouble her too much, however, because Amore had always been a woman of action. So with her hands still smoothing over his face, she cupped his jaw and pulled the Forastero to her, inviting the exchange of heart once more through their lips.

 

[Kishou]

The Priestess' invitation was positively received as Kishou allowed himself to be pulled into her incandescence, melting away into her completely.

Who'd have thought the Forastero would have found consolation and comfort in the embrace of the woman he stole away. There was some shallow guilt about the passion that bloomed between them. But it did not stay his lips, not for a moment. With each kiss, Kishou rid himself of needless thoughts, and when he broke away for a breath, he would rush back in again and again as he couldn't stand a moment of being apart. As if to show her at last, this was the beat of his heart that had been unheard.

Kishou's heart hammered at a dizzying pace, and wild instinct drove his hand to Amore's waist, where he loosened the sash of her kimono in a single tug.